Amongst the wreckage
by Ewritings
Summary: Day at the office for Torchwood, complete with collapsing buildings. Suppose I should disclaim. I do not own any of the characters in this piece of fiction, nor am I making any money from it. Unfortunately.
1. Chapter 1

First attempt at posting. I've done my best with tenses but there's a chance I've missed something! Constructive criticism always welcome.

**Amongst the wreckage**

The building fell.

**TWTWTW**

They'd almost got out, the victory was so close that Jack had got his trademark grin back on his face. Covered in dust and grime, half carrying Owen and ignoring the friendly taunts from Gwen; they stumbled out of the building and turned to wait for Tosh and Ianto to join them.

Owen was already grumbling about how he'd have to miss his turn driving the SUV because of his messed up leg, whining about how smug Ianto would be.

Jack smirked and teased back, "Ianto's allowed to be smug, he's my favourite."

"Oh ha bloody ha. It's only a joke if it's not blatantly true Harkness!", came the mostly good natured retort from Owen. Jack turned to him with a comeback ready on his lips, eyes glinting with the relieved, giddy mirth of someone who's team had survived another impossible alien encounter.

Then the ground shook. They re-focused their attention on the doorway that the remaining team members had yet to exit, smiles fading as foreboding set in. Jack readjusted his grip on Owen to pass him off and head towards the building again.

Then. The building fell.

**TWTWTW**

Ianto pushed open yet _another_ door to a ridiculously cramped office in this extremely poorly signposted building.

_Where the hell were the stairs?! This was getting irritating. I'm covered in (thankfully non-fatal amounts of) blood, I've got a pounding headache and this suit is completely RUINED. Just let me get out of this godforsaken building and into a shower! Preferably Jack's. _

His earpiece was history, lost somewhere. Possibly inside the disturbingly colourful guts of the latest failed Earth conquest. Besides, asking for help to get out of the office block would have given Owen ammunition for weeks! (He tended to drag a joke on a bit, especially at the expense of Ianto.)

He opened another door, this one marginally familiar, and almost ran straight into Tosh.

"Crap! Are you ok?", he asked, resisting the urge to curse or snap. He actually quite liked Tosh. She just gave that small, professional smile and nodded before continuing on. Ianto followed, hoping it didn't look too much like he was completely lost and following her lead.

They descended the staircase at a pace that made them slightly dizzy; both were keen to get the day over with. As they sped down Ianto started to notice slight tremors, and he was pretty sure he wasn't tired enough for it to be coming from him.

"Tosh? Do you feel that?"

She paused, turning a little to talk to him. At that point the tremors became shakes, the structural damage their fight had done to the building making itself known. Genius though Tosh was, not even she had thought to check that no load bearing walls had been damaged; too full of relief at the fact that they'd seen the hostiles off successfully. The building was abandoned and fairly remote, the reason the invasion force had made it their base of operations. So Torchwood had dismissed the damage; sure that the place would probably be demolished soon anyway.

Tosh's eyes widened as Ianto flew past her, grabbing her hand on the way. He had much longer legs than Tosh, and it was well known on the team that Ianto was the fastest runner. That wasn't going to help here though, they were still 6 flights up and the ceiling was falling in, stairs shaking violently beneath their feet. As they passed another door to a corridor he turned towards it, they wouldn't be able to get out, but it was probably worse to be in the stairwell when the building gave up the struggle to remain standing. Tosh panted behind him, fear making her breath shallow, but her eyes were clear and calculating as she headed towards the most stable looking place. A poor attempt at shelter but it was all they managed before the shaking stopped suddenly.

And the building fell.

**TWTWTW**

Terror gripped him as he saw the roof fall in, the walls crumble. Stone and glass, crashing together in an abominable symphony, sound far more deafening than it had any right to be. It was done in seconds. One moment, derelict building; the next, little more than rubble.

Jack started running, dumping Owen on Gwen as he raced towards the door. Too late. But he ran anyway.

"Ianto! Tosh! Oh my god, no. Please no." , his yells trailed off into a desperate mutter as he attempted to reach them on the comms. Pleading with deities he didn't believe in that they'd answer, just tell him to start digging, that Ianto's deadpan would make some snarky comment about there being no rush, that Jack's company wasn't that desirable anyway.

"Please answer me."

**TWTWTW**

Tosh stirred, Ianto's bulkier frame covering her where he'd crouched over her protectively. She pushed at him, trying to keep her panic under control as she felt his deadweight. Hands trembling, she pressed her fingers to his dust covered throat, feeling the gritty texture of the days grime over his damp skin. She picked up a pulse at last, relief swamped over her. At least she didn't have a dead man, a colleague, possibly a friend, draped over her. Now she had to get him up.

She twisted, optimism rising as she saw a chink of light; they couldn't be too far from the surface. She still had her earpiece and the others must have gotten outside before the collapse, she and Ianto had been tasked with sweeping the upper levels while Gwen and Jack did the lower floors and got Owen out. Wriggling a little more she managed to get her hand up to her ear, now she could feel Ianto's shallow breaths on her wrist. Reassuring, but she was beginning to worry about inhaling the concrete dust filled air.

The buttons relented under her sure fingers, this was her tech and she could do this in her sleep.

She opened up to all channels, "This is Tosh, is anyone there?", her voice was calm and steady but her heart started to accelerate. _If no-one answers we're good as done for. _

"Tosh! Thank god! Do you know where you were when the building fell? Have you seen Ianto? He won't answer me." Jack's confident American tones rang out in her head, but she'd known him long enough to detect the quaver in his voice as he asked about Ianto.

"He's here. With me. But he's not conscious, pulse is steady and he's breathing but it's a bit erratic Jack."

"Ok, we'll deal with that. But first we need to get you out. Do you know where you are?", Jack's voice was closer to the omniscient leader persona he usually adopted and despite it all it made Tosh feel better.

"We were on the fifth floor, by the break room with the big T.V. I don't know how much of the building fell around us but I can see light.", she reported, settling slightly at the thought of being able to hand over to her commander. She wasn't military really, none of them were, but Jack's soldiers they were none the less.

"We're coming Tosh, can you yell through the gap? Where the light's coming in? We'll find you soon."

Tosh replied in the affirmative and took a deep breath to begin shouting. Twisting around Ianto again she wished he would wake up, he had a louder voice for one thing!

**TWTWTW**

Jack almost sagged in relief before rallying himself and directing Gwen to help him search. They were alive. Now he had to make sure they stayed that way.

Tosh was shouting herself hoarse when Ianto finally stirred. It had been less than 10 minutes but it felt like hours she'd been alone with the sound of her own voice.

"Ianto? Can you hear me? Do you remember what happened?", she kept her voice level, despite the tearful relief that came as she saw his eyes squint open in the tiny glow of light.

"Yeah", his voice came out harsh and he coughed feebly before continuing. "I remember, the building collapsed. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Jack's looking for us, we can't be too far from the surface. Are you ok? Does anything hurt? Can you breath properly?", she knew she was starting to ramble slightly but she couldn't stop herself. Ianto wasn't as used to field ops as the rest of them. He had been, for a long time, their teaboy. A thankless job that they often overlooked the importance of, but he'd never slacked or complained. Despite the fact that he was just as good with a gun as any among them, (except perhaps Jack) and he was a great tactical thinker on the move, he'd never asked for more and it was only fairly recently that he hadn't been staying on base all day.

Ianto managed a delicate smile to reassure her, "My head hurts, quite a bit. And I'm pretty sure I've cracked a couple of ribs but they don't feel broken. My ankle's trapped, and numb so I don't know the damage. Other than that, through some miracle, I'm ok."

Tosh was less pleased than Ianto seemed to be with the damage report, however she needed to get him out before they could check him over properly. He might have to go to an actual hospital, depending on the state of Owen. "Alright, I'll keep shouting. Feel free to join me!", with teasing smile, that wasn't _entirely_ forced, she turned so she wasn't shouting in his face and kept yelling.

Ianto would have much preferred to never even breathe again considering the state of his ribs, on the other hand, he very much wanted to have the option to breathe something other than dust sometime soon so he joined Tosh in shouting for their rescuers.

**TWTWTW**

Jack gave a shuddering gasp of elation and relief as he finally heard Tosh's voice, joined by Ianto.

"Gwen! Over here!", he didn't technically have any official qualifications in extracting people from fallen rock, however he thought he could manage for his team.

He scrambled and slid towards the voices, more gracefully than one might have expected and being careful not to dislodge anything that could then hurt his trapped team.

The next half an hour passed in a blur of reassuring his team and passing out rubble to Gwen, digging carefully around anything that was too heavy or awkward for them to move.

Then they were through, crouching by the hole he'd made he finally saw Ianto's face. Pale and pained, smeared with grime and blood; still the best goddamn thing he'd seen in a long time.

A slight smirk graced Ianto's face, "Took your time didn't you, sir? At least I had Tosh for company; I've got to say it's preferable to anyone else on this team."

Jack just grinned and shook his head. He'd expect nothing else from his obnoxious Welshman.

**TWTWTW**

Ianto looked up at the exasperated grin on Jack's face and felt his own face soften into a gentler smile. He turned to Tosh, "Ladies first is more polite but I rather think I'm blocking the way", he said, almost actually apologetic. Tosh just rolled her eyes and gave him a little shove before helping him up and out, towards Jack's outstretched hand.

As she observed the careful way Jack held him up and checked him over Tosh couldn't help but smile a little. Their line of work was often lonely and isolated. Cut off from people who could never comprehend the things they had experienced. Although she longed for a little of it herself, she couldn't begrudge the bond Jack and Ianto had. They deserved to be happy, and today, fate had seen fit to give them a happy ending.


	2. Coda

**AN: I just wanted to put a scene of them waiting in the hospital in, but it didn't really fit in the main story so this is a kind of coda? If it had been a longer story I'd probably call it an epilogue.**

**Also my knowledge of medicine and hospital procedure is non-existent (I'm not even sure what my doctor looks like!) so that's a bit hand wavey. Still if I was looking for realism I wouldn't be into Torchwood would I! **

CODA

Jack paced up and down the corridor, boots thudding slightly on the tacky hospital floor. Gwen had taken Owen home (Jack couldn't quite muster up the energy to be suspicious about that right now) and Tosh was curled in an uncomfortable plastic chair next to him.

For the umpteenth time Jack attempted to get her to go home, "You don't have to stay, Tosh. I'll make sure Ianto's ok and you're exhausted."

Tosh didn't even bother to grace that with a response, merely snorting before turning her attention back to her phone, she'd ignored that argument the last 8 times he'd said it, no reason to suddenly change her mind now!

Jack sighed and slumped down on the low ledge next to her, "What the hell is taking them so long? And why wouldn't they let me in?". He tucked his hands inside his coat, scowling at the floor as if it had personally offended him. The sight made Tosh smile; his demeanour reminded her of nothing more than a child denied a favoured playmate.

"He'll be out soon Jack, routine checks for cranial trauma and you can take him home. Ten more minutes tops, I'm sure.", her tone was soothing, almost motherly as she quashed the amusement Jack's pout elicited. She understood his agitation; Ianto had been worryingly pale, even for him. Living in Cardiff, and spending the majority of your time underground at that, hardly made for a healthy tan, but Ianto's pallor had been concerning.

She was just considering making conversation to take his mind off the wait (having a bit of trouble coming up with a topic; the only things that came to mind were coding matrices and the dismal décor of the hospital. God she must be tired!), when Ianto finally entered the waiting room, a nurse close behind him.

Jack sprung up immediately, making an aborted grab for his arm. At that Tosh couldn't suppress a small smirk, no-one made Captain Jack Harkness hesitant. Except apparently Ianto. Ianto just rolled his eyes and indicated the nurse he was with. "They want confirmation that I'm not going home alone, and to make sure you know my medication schedule. Just in case." Ianto's calm and matter of fact voice finally seemed to calm Jack a bit, enough for him to turn his patented smile on the nurse as he filled out the relevant form.

Tosh rose with a mite more dignity than Jack had and approached Ianto herself, "You're all ok then? No permanent damage?" Despite her assurances to Jack she wanted confirmation herself.

"Good to go. A good night's rest and a cup of tea and I'll be right as rain."

"Not coffee?" she ribbed back gently.

Ianto's put upon sigh was truly impressive. "Apparently it doesn't mesh well with the meds. Just my bloody luck isn't it? I've got a new blend I've been waiting to try out."

They made idle small talk, waiting for Jack to finish flirting with the nurse (still filling out forms, the flirting seemed automatic. Typical Jack) and drive them home. When he'd eventually done, leaving the over-worked nurse with a wink and a slightly brighter night, they exited in a huddle, Jack steering both of his charges towards the SUV.

"First stop Chez Tosh, then I can finally get you into bed Ianto!", he announced sliding into the drivers' seat after ensuring Ianto's ribs were situated comfortably in the seatbelt.

Ianto raised an eye-brow and retorted calmly, "I don't remember formulating this plan, sir. Would you like to remind me when that happened?" His tone may have been coolly professional but nobody who was sincere _ever_ looked that innocent.

"I'll give you an in depth report when we get back. Maybe we can even archive it, I know how much you like that!", how Jack managed to make _archiving _sound lecherous was anyone's' guess but it did at long last break the tension. Ianto's harried groan mixed with Tosh's discrete chuckle and Jack grinned, he loved his team.

"That, sir. Was awful. Even by your standards."

Jack's grin only widened. Yep, he had the best team in all the worlds.

**End**


End file.
